


1-19 Rose's Room

by iippo



Series: Steven Universe Renaissance [19]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:15:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29267085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iippo/pseuds/iippo
Summary: Steven's desire for some alone-time unlocks a new room in the Temple that answers his every wish.
Series: Steven Universe Renaissance [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1796686
Kudos: 1





	1-19 Rose's Room

**Author's Note:**

> An alternative universe. See series page for details.

Steven Universe, one of the two Crystal Gem protectors of the Earth, was in his kitchen eating creamed corn from a can.

“This is it, folks. Rookie sensation Steven Universe readies his last spoonful of Colonel Kernel's Classic Creamed Corn. As the crowd waits with bated breath, one bite between him... and destiny,” Steven narrated his actions as he shoved a spoonful of corn in his mouth and swallowed it. “And he's done it! He's eaten six cans of creamed corn!” Steven celebrated and waved his arms in the air, accepting the accolades of the invisible cheering crowd.

The magical door to the Crystal Temple opened with a slurchy noise and traces of what appeared to be purple slime. Amethyst stepped out of her room.

“Amethyst, check this out!” Steven said, too enthusiastic for a proper greeting as he gathered the empty cans off the kitchen counter and rushed over to her.

“Stoo-man in the house! Whatcha got? Whatcha got?” Amethyst hollered her greeting with her hands on her hips.

“I got six empty cans of Colonel Kernel's Classic Creamed Corn!” Steven showed her his accomplishment.

“...Cool!” Amethyst replied with a genuine smile. She _also_ enjoyed the shape of creamed corn cans and was glad Steven had so many.

“Yeah, and on the back, are five-dollar coupons for mini-golf. I ate six cans, so we can go together with the Pizzas,” Steven explained, with little stars in his eyes.

“Wow, that's really thoughtful, Steven,” Amethyst exclaimed. “I can ask Kofi today when will be a good time for them,” she added and headed past Steven towards the door.

“Well, I was hoping we could go today,” Steven said hopefully.

“Sorry Steven, I’m helping Kofi fix the sign at the shop today,” Amethyst explained.

“Whaaaat?” Steven wailed and dropped the cans on the floor with a dramatic clatter. “But... mini-golf is so much fun! There's castles, and windmills, and I like it, and- oh look, look what I brought!” He ran to the living room and picked up the next thing he wanted to show Amethyst. “I pulled out my dad's old clubs and also found a pair of his old golf pants. They're a little big on me, but Kofi could wear them!” He waved the purple-yellow-brown argyle-patterned pants in front of him for Amethyst to look.

Amethyst stifled a giggle, imagining Kofi wearing the pants.

“Sounds great, but like I said – no can do today,” Amethyst shot down Steven’s idea. “How ‘bout you come with me and help us fix the sign?” she counter-offered.

“Okay!” Steven replied and threw the pants in the general direction of the living room and followed Amethyst out the front door.

They walked over to the Boardwalk, where Kofi Pizza was already waiting for Amethyst. 

“Ah, Amethyst, there you are! And Steven, hello!” Kofi greeted them with his hands on the hips as they arrived. 

“Alright so what’s the plan?” Amethyst asked. 

“If you can hold the boards against the supports, I can use this,” Kofi brandished a nail gun, “and attach it.”

They got to work. Amethyst grabbed the first board with a part of the sign “Fish Stew Pizza” on it, and shapeshifted tall enough to place it against the supports on the roof, while Kofi climbed on a ladder and started to nail the board firmly to the roof. 

Steven watched from the ground, first calling encouraging words to the workers but soon losing interest as there really wasn’t anything for him to do here. 

Once the board was secure enough that Amethyst didn’t need to hold it anymore, she shapeshifted back to normal to take a break and to wait for Kofi to be ready for the second board. 

“I think I’ll head back home,” Steven said to Amethyst as he walked over to her. 

“Oh okay, sure,” Amethyst said with a slightly ‘whatever’ tone to her voice, having already kind of forgotten that she had asked Steven to come along in the first place. 

Steven hesitated, wanting something more, some kind of acknowledgement from Amethyst, but Kofi was done with the first board and Amethyst needed to focus to work again, so he walked off, slightly disappointed but unsure why. His walk back to the beach house accentuated his grouchy mood, which evolved into defiance by the time he made it home.

“Well you’re not the only ones with an important job to do,” Steven grumbled as he climbed the stairs to his bedroom with a bag of chips he grabbed from the kitchen. He turned on the tv and the game console and fired up Mini Golf Quest.

His sour mood melted away as he got sucked in to the world of the game.

“Awww yeah!” Steven celebrated when the professor handed his character a golf club. “You received the Mythril Putter!” Steven read the dialogue off the screen, and imitated the game achivement sound. "Don't worry Professor. We're gonna sink 'em all!" He continued, then giggled at the joke.

He played onwards, until the game made an alarming sound. “Uh oh,” Steven reacted, when the game revealed a random encounter with a golf windmill. “Oh windmill. Why must we always fight?” He sighed dramatically and prepared his game characters for battle. “Man, it would've been just like this!” He said wistfully about the missed minigolf adventure after striking the windwill with a powerful drive.

Steven completely lost track of time while he played. He played all night, only pausing to shift position and to go to the bathroom, and in the morning he defeated the final boss.

"I can't lose! I am the greatest golfer in the Universssse!" Steven read the dialogue of the defeated enemy and made explosion sounds. The screen showed a mauve box with white text that said “game over” and then a text that read “secret ending unlocked.”

“Alright! Secret ending!” Steven celebrated. He sat down by the foot of the bed and leaned forward to learn the last bit of secret game lore.

Just then the warp pad activated and when the light dissipated, Amethyst stood on the warp pad, next to a large bell-shaped device made of metal.

“Hey, Steven! I’m baaaack!” Amethyst hollered, eager to show Steven what she found.

“Hey,” Steven replied flatly, distracted by the tv screen. On it was playing the cut scene from the game. The main character, named Ace, stood in front of a mechanical door.

“Project F.L.O.G! That's ‘golf’ backwards,” the character said, the dialogue done in voice-over rather than on-screen text. Ace opened the door and saw a cryogenic capsule inside. “What is this?”

Amethyst hopped onto the bed behind Steven and leaned over him to look at him upside down. “Sorry I was gone all night. Wanna hear about where I've been?” She asked, dangling her head upside down in front of Steven. Her hair covered his view of the tv.

“Auugh, uhh! Wait! Wait, hold on!” Steven said, trying to see around her and to the tv, parting her hair to see.

On the tv Ace was wiping the fog on the cryogenic capsule. “June 9, 2014? But that was the date he disappeared!” Came the character’s monologue.

Amethyst somersaulted off the bed and in front of Steven on the floor. Her head was completely blocking his view.

“Hey!” Steven yelped with slight irritation. Ace was still talking on the tv.

Amethyst mistook Steven’s “Hey!” for a happy greeting. “Steven! Look at this,” she said and shapeshifted her arm to pull the artefact onto the bedroom floor.

Steven kept trying to follow the events of the secret ending.

“It's the Wailing Stone I found! Isn’t it cool?” Amethyst explained.

“Amethyyyyst!” Steven pleaded, seeing only half of the screen and struggling to hear any of the dialogue.

“Look, you just have to push _this_!” Amethyst kept explaining, and pushed the top of the device. 

The Wailing Stone activated and emitted a loud piercing noise. Steven had to cover his ears with his hands, and even close his eyes for the vibration made his eyeballs feel weird. The sound wave was so loud that it even broke the tv. Amethyst quickly pushed the top of the Wailing Stone again, turning it off.

“Isn’t it awesome?” Amethyst said with a grin, but then saw Steven looking dazed. “Steven?” She asked, for the first time properly paying attention to him.

“That was the secret ending!” Steven yelled in frustration and from the look on his face Amethyst realised she had messed up. “Now I have to replay the final dungeon all over again! It's not _fair_! I can't go mini-golfing, I can't play my game, I can't stop going into the bathroom because I ate all that Creamed Corn! So much corn…” he trailed off with a sigh, and added: “I just wish I had a place for myself.” He flopped back against the end of the bed, resting his head on the mattress. He felt like he could never be happy again.

Under his shirt, the rose quartz gemstone began to glow. Amethyst gasped. Steven straightened up and noticed it too. “Huh? My gem!” He said and lifted his shirt to see what was going on.

The door to the temple began to hum, and Amethyst and Steven both turned to look at it. The small symbol that looked like a rose quartz gem on the door began to glow too.

“Rose's door…” Amethyst said with her voice barely above a whisper. “Steven, your gem is opening your mother's room.” It was hard to tell if she was overcome with emotion – or shaking with fear.

Steven walked over to the door and Amethyst followed. The door opened up like an aperture with three pink blades that formed a tringle-shaped opening. The opening was full of white light, but once the door was fully open it dimmed down to be more pinkish.

“Woah…” Steven mumbled and walked towards the door, like hypnotized.

“Steven, wait! Don't go in there!” Amethyst snapped out of her memories, frightened.

Steven turned to look at her, his face looking distant. Some kind of feral urge had overcome him. “It's never about what I wanna do, is it?” He asked with a quiet, dangerous voice. Amethyst grimaced. “Well now we have a place where I'm going and _you can’t come_!” Steven yelled and ran inside the temple.”

“Steven!” Amethyst yelled, panic breaking her voice.

But it was too late. The door slammed shut in front of her, leaving her gripping her hair in despair. She had to get him out of there, before it was too late.

\- - - -

Inside the temple Steven continued to be wowed. The room was an endless field of pink clouds, with nothing but a doorway standing behind Steven – and then it disappeared with a “poof” and left Steven standing alone.

“Whoa…” Steven said again as he started walking and looking around in the room. “So this is my mom's room? She must've liked clouds a lot... But what kind of room doesn't even have a bed?” He mused out loud.

A bed suddenly appeared under him and he tripped and fell belly-flop on the soft mattress.

“Woah!” Steven yelped in surprise as he faceplanted, but then he realised what was going on. “--cool!” He immediately responded to the situation as if it were a game. “Hm... This bed is pretty nice. But you know what would be _really_ nice? Quadruple-bunk beds!” He said out loud, and sure enough, the room responded like he expected it to, and the bed he was standing on turned into a quadruple bunk bed complex, hoisting Steven high in the air.

“With a slide!” Steven added and as commanded a red slide with white stars appeared beside the top bed. Steven got on it and slid down. “Woo-hoo!” He hooted with glee as he slid down. But the slide didn’t end at the ground level and instead launched him into a freefall. 

“A parachute!” Steven commanded and a parachute appeared on his back, gently carrying him to the ground before disappearing. Steven’s heart was beating quickly. “Ehehehe,” he chuckled. “What next? Hmmmm... Ummmm... A Tiny Floating Whale?”

A Tiny Floating Whale – pink of course - appeared in front of Steven. “OoouUUuoo,” the whale chirped.

Steven squeed at the whale – which must be the cutest thing he had ever seen, he thought – and giggled. “Wow! Here I get anything I ask for! But you know what I really want? I wanna see the end of my game, without being interrupted!”

A tv with Golf Quest Mini playing on it popped into existence. Steven and the Tiny Whale high-fived and Steven settled down to his game. The secret ending cutscene continued from where he left it, with Ace opening the cryogenic capsule and a man emerged from it.

“It's me, your father! After decades of cryostation, I'm finally free!” The new character declared.

The cutscene ended with Ace and his father standing on a hill, overlooking the golf course. “Saving the day is just par for the course,” Ace said, and the tv went blank.

“That was awesome!” Steven celebrated, then he yawned. “Hmm... I'm kinda hungry now,” he mused.

A donut appeared and floated in front of him in the air.

Steven laughed. “Alright!” He grabbed the donut and took a bite of it – except the moment he did so, the donut turned into clouds with a poof. “Wha... ?” Steven looked at his empty hand which only a moment ago had been holding a definitely real donut. “Hey! I want a _real_ donut!” He demanded.

Another donut appeared and Steven tried to eat it, but again it poofed away when he tried to take a bite.

“What?!” He hollered. “Can you believe this?” He asked the whale, who replied by making tiny noncommittal whale sounds.

“Now I have to go out for donuts!” Steven grumbled, and the doorway to the house opened. Steven marched through it.

“Don't get excited, Amethyst, I'm only back for a secon-” Steven said, expecting Amethyst to be waiting for him behind the door. But the house was empty.

Steven felt a twinge of rejection, but then hardened up and with a defiant voice said: “well, good! I didn't want to see you anyway!”

Steven went out – it had already gotten dark – and made his way to the Big Donut.

“How's my favorite fine foods franchise?” Steven greeted Lars and Sadie from the door as he entered, and came up to the counter they were standing behind. “So I'm thinking... Double chocolate cinnamon twist with sprinkles on the side. You know I like to dip,” Steven ordered with a flair, speaking before anyone else said anything.

Sadie and Lars just stood there, smiling away, not saying anything.

“Uhhh…” Steven glanced around nervously. “Steven to Sadie and Lars!... Is this like a joke or something?”

All of a sudden Sadie and Lars said in absolute unison: "Hello, Steven. What kind of donut would you like?" Steven flinched in surprise.

“Uhh, I just said-” Steven started but was interrupted by the donut-unison again.

"It's very nice to see you, Steven!"

“Well, it's very nice to see you, too,” Steven reciprocated, getting more and more lost by the strange conversation.

"Here are your donuts!" Lars and Sadie said, still in unison and threw a paper bag on the counter. Steven flinched out of the way of the incoming bag.

“Wait, you guys. I only ordered-” Steven started to correct his order, but was interrupted.

“OK, we love you, Steven! Bye bye, now!" Sadie and Lars said, with their faces stuck in effusive smiles that never once faltered during the interaction. As they spoke they retreated – glided? – backwards towards the employees-only area of the store.

“Wait! Where are you guys going?” Steven said and followed after them. “I still haven't paid for these! You guys, hold on a--” Steven rounded the counter and followed them through the empty storage room to another door and opened it as he spoke, but then faltered.

“... sec,” he finished his sentence, as he realised that he had come out through the back of the building to an empty parking lot, and there was no sign of Lars or Sadie.

Steven looked around in the dark and noticed Onion standing under a streetlight.

“Huh? Hey, Onion!” He called out and ran over to the smaller boy. “Have you seen Lars and Sadie? They should have just been out here!” Steven asked, still confused about what just happened. Onion didn’t reply, as was his wont, he simply glanced and grinned at Steven. Steven nodded. “Well, if you see them, let me know, okay?” Steven said and headed off, but then came back and held a donut out for Onion. “Here, have a donut,” he said but Onion didn’t react. Steven touched Onion’s face with the donut, but when Onion didn’t say or do anything, he simply placed it on top of his head. “I'll leave it here for you,” he said and left. “See you later!”

Steven continued along the empty boardwalk and past all the closed businesses.

“All the lights are on. But no one is here…” He mused as he passed Beach Citywalk Fries. Then he stopped, and retraced his steps, for he realised what he had seen in the window of the fryshop: Frybo.

“Peedee?!” Steven said to the fry-mascot, the one Steven clearly remembered destroying. He even attended its funeral.

Without a word, Frybo placed a plate of frybits on the counter in front of Steven.

“Oh, frybits,” Steven said and looked at the counter. “Usually I'm all about the bits. But I'm feeling kinda spooked right now,” he explained. While he spoke, Frybo placed another plate of frybits in front of Steven. On the exact same spot on the counter. Even all the frybits were in the exact same positions on the plate. The plates merged so that there was only a single plate of bits in front of him. Steven watched Frybo’s actions and his eyes widened when the frybits defied physics and occupied the exact same space at the exact same time. 

He looked at the plate with mouth agape and pointed to it, unable to form a question. When Frybo placed a third plate of fries into the exact same location, Steven freaked out. 

“Gah!” He yelped, and then looked up at Frybo and its vaguely threatening extra-happy face. Steven excused himself: “Uh, you know what? I think I'm gonna look around some more. See you later, Frybo!” He rushed through his words and ran away before Frybo had a chance to do anything else.

Steven headed into Funland and looked around at all the amusement park rides, dead and lifeless in the night. He then walked over to the Funland Arcade, which was also lightless and lifeless.

Suddenly all the lights and the games turned on and Steven spooked. He ran away and came to the other side of the beach. He stopped in his tracks when he saw a familiar figure.

“Connie! I can't believe it's you. When did you get back in town?” He greeted her and walked over, relieved to see someone familiar.

But Connie didn’t turn around to look at him.

Steven was about to talk to her again – maybe she hadn’t heard him – when he noticed the edge of the water. The sea was jerking back and forth unnaturally, instead of its usual gentle back-and-forth lapping. It almost seemed like a videogame glitch.

“Aah!” Steven screamed. “The water! Connie, what's happening? Where is everyone?” Steven was really scared.

Connie turned around with an extatic smile, but her glasses blocked her eyes, like they were made of porcelain instead of glass. "He was _incredible_!" She exclaimed. She was clutching the glow bracelet Steven had given her when they first met, and its pink glow cast an eerie hue all over her.

“Huh?” Steven startled and fell backwards onto the sand.

"He was _incredible_!" Connie repeated, as if it was the only thing she was programmed to say. Steven was terrified. He looked around in a panic and noticed that he was surrounded by various Beach City residents – Mr. Smiley, Mr. Fryman, Sour Cream, Jenny, Mayor Dewey – who were all standing behind Steven with blank expressions on their faces.

Connie kept repeting "He was _incredible_!" on a loop.

“Wha... What?!” Steven yelled. “Get me out of here!” He got up and ran past the people standing on the sand like statues.

“What's wrong with your faces?” Steven shouted as he ran past more and more people. He stopped as he came face to face with the pink lion. “Lion, you too?!” Steven yelled and moved carefully around the large animal. He could still hear the faint echo of Connie’s repeated "He was _incredible_!"

Steven kept running along the sand – except suddenly he was standing in ankle-deep water. He looked around and there was nothing but water under the black starry sky everywhere as far as the eye could see.

“Can someone please _explain this_!?” He yelled in confusion. As the words left his mouth, he sank into the water with a surprised “huh!?””

He popped out of the ground in front of It’s a Wash, flailing his arms and legs as he tried to swim as he sank.

“Ah!” Steven yelped, finding himself standing on solid ground, in front of a familiar place. Greg came out of the building.

“Steven!” He called out with a smile, surprised to see his son.

“Dad!? Is that you!?” Steven asked, still panicking.

“What? Of course!” Greg replied and came over. Steven backed away a little and Greg knelt in front of him. Steven was all pale and sweaty. “You doing alright? You look like you saw a ghost. Either that, or you stayed up all night playing a video game,” he said with a cheeky frown.

“Dad, I'm freaking out! I feel like I'm stuck inside of some crazy dream! Like everything is all wrong!” Steven explained, unable to explain.

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa,” Greg lifted his arms in a defensive way, “breathe Steven, and remember that if every porkchop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hotdogs. Now why don't we share some of those donuts and you can tell me about this crazy night you're having?” Greg suggested. They went over to the van and climbed onto its roof. Steven let Greg grab a donut from the bag.

“Amethyst was trying to tell me something about mom's Room, but I was so mad that I didn't listen,” Steven started and Greg listened while munching on the donut. “She’s always leaving me behind, and... I guess I wanted to do it to her, too,” Steven mused, staring wistfully at his donut while he spoke.

“That's not so bad. Everyone needs some alone time now and then,” Greg replied with a benevolent smile, and air-guitared “di-li-di-li-di-li-ding!”

Steven laughed at his dad-antics. “Yeah. It was really fun for a while,” he admitted, thinking of his adventures in the room with the pink clouds. “But now, the whole city... everyone and everything is acting really weird.”

“Well the important thing is you told the truth,” Greg said with a mouth full of donut.

“Yeah, I... guess I did…?” Steven said, then wondered what Greg was referring to.

Greg air-guitared again, and took another bite from his donut.

“Uh, Dad? Your advice is making less sense than usual,” Steven said tentatively and looked at Greg’s donut. He had taken several bites of it by now but it didn’t seem to be missing more than one.

“Well the important thing is family and friendship, honesty values, and no one got arrested!” Greg said with a friendly smile and air-guitared again. Steven watched carefully when Greg took another bite from his donut. He turned to look at the donut he was holding in his own hand, and then took a bite.

The donut poofed into clouds.

“Ah!” Steven yelped as he realised what was going on. “I'm still in the room! All of this, it's all a fake-a-roo!”

Greg smiled at him and air-guitared again before disappearing with a pop. Steven looked down at where Greg had just sat and realised that half of the van had also disappeared. Then the half that was still there, the half Steven was sitting on, also went pop and disappeared from under him and with a gasp he fell on his face to the ground.

“This is all wrong!” Steven bemoaned, but then yelped again as a part of the ground disappeared right in front of him. Underneath was just a black void with distant bright stars.

More and more pieces of ground and buildings and everything popped out of existence all around him. Steven looked around, helpless, not sure what to do. His instincts took over him and he ran away from the vanishing Beach City and up a hill. Then the hill began to vanish too and at last there was nowhere left to stand. Steven fell into the starry void.

“Aaaaaah!!!” Steven screamed as he fell. He fell in nothingness and cried out: “I don't want this!

The Tiny Floating Whale appeared next to him and looked at Steven with deep concern on its little whale face. “What do you want, Steven?” It asked with a tender but grave voice.

“I want to be back with Amethyst!” Steven cried and took the whale into his arms. The whale poofed away into clouds, and Steven wrapped his arms around himself, curling up in a fetal position as he fell and fell through endless nothingness, with nothing but bright, distant stars around him.

Steven didn’t notice that he fell through an opening of a door and out of the temple.

However Amethyst, who was standing in the beach house by the temple door, did notice Steven falling vertically out of the door, because he slammed directly into her and sent them tumbling across the floor.

“Oof!” Amethyst grunted at the impact.

Steven gasped as he saw her. “Amethyst!” He yelped, took a hold of her arm and bit her as hard as he could.

“Ow,” Amethyst said flatly.

Steven sighed in relief. “You're not clouds!” He leaned into her lap.

“Alright, Steven,” Amethyst said gently, giving him a little squeeze.

“Amethyst, it was awful! I was trapped in a messed up version of Beach City. Everyone was acting super weird and…” Steven started to explain his experience.

“Rose's room built the whole town?!” Amethyst yelped in shock. “It can’t handle a task like that!” She tightened her grip around him. “Thank goodness you’re okay!”

Steven sighed. “I'm sorry I got mad. I get it now. Things can't always go exactly how I want.”

“Oh Steven, I’m sorry, too,” Amethyst replied. “But guess what? The Pizzas said we could go minigolfing today.”

Steven gasped in joy.

\- - - -

Later that day, all six of them were at the minigolf course. Kofi was wearing the golf pants that Steven had found, the weather was great, there were dinosaurs and windmills – in short, it was exactly as Steven had pictured it.

“I always get what I want!” Steven celebrated, as Nanefua putted a golf ball into the hole.


End file.
